Some high and dry, some not

SEAN SIMMERS, The Patriot-News
Nick Farr surveys the flooding of the Swatara Creek from his front porch in Lower Swatara Twp.

The nasty-looking brown water of Swatara Creek rose up into Nick Farr's front yard and into his garage yesterday morning and he felt peace as never before.

That was because he and his wife, Joyce, raised their entire house  roof, bedrooms and wood-floored kitchen  last year to avoid the floods that had plagued their spot along the creek throughout their 55 years of marriage.

"For the first time in 50 years, we have peace of mind," said Farr, whose creekside property is in Lower Swatara Twp.

Other township residents were not quite so happy yesterday as floodwaters from heavy rain swelled area creeks and threatened to push the Susquehanna River close to flood stage.

Steve Hickoff, who has lived at 102 Bradford Avenue since 1982, watched water from nearby Stoner Run cover about 150 yards of his street and nearly surround his house, although it did not get inside.

The flooding, he said, was not entirely due to nature. Construction projects just downstream of his neighborhood have changed drainage patterns and made the area more flood-prone, he said.

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